tmph fa14 week 1: how people learn
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Cheryl Anderson Family and Preventative Medicine, UC San Diego and Peter Newbury Center for Teaching Development, UC San Diego teachingmethodsinpublichealth.ucsd.eduTRANSCRIPT
Teaching Methods in Public Health
Week 1: How People Learn
Peter Newbury
@polarisdotca
Unless otherwise noted, content is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Non Commercial 3.0 License.
Cheryl Anderson
Who are we?
Peter Newbury Cheryl Anderson
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Why are we here?
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What do you think students are doing in a typical
university class?
A) listening
B) absorbing
C) learning
D) note-taking
The traditional lecture is based on the
transmissionist model of learning
How People Learn - teachingmethodsinpublichealth.ucsd.edu 4 image by um.dentistry on flickr CC
Important new number system
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Learn it.
1 = 4 = 7 =
2 = 5 = 8 =
3 = 6 = 9 =
Test
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What is this number?
Scientifically outdated, a known failure
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We must abandon the tabula rasa (blank
slate) and “students as empty vessels”
models of teaching and learning.
New Number System = tic-tac-toe code
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1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
Test
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What number is this?
Constructivist Theory of Learning
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New learning is based on knowledge you already have.
You store things in long term memory through a set of connections that are made with your existing memories.
(Images by Rebecca-Lee on flickr CC)
Creating memories (learning) involves having neurons fire and link up in networks or patterns. (fMRI is allowing us to observe learning as it happens.)
learning is done
by individuals
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How People Learn
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3 Key Findings
3 Implications for Teaching
3 Designs for Classroom Environment
Key Finding 1
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Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for the purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside of the classroom.
(How People Learn, p 14.)
Implications for Teaching 1
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Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting understandings that their students bring with them.
(How People Learn, p 19.)
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1 = 4 = 7 =
2 = 5 = 8 =
3 = 6 = 9 =
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
unsupported, unfamiliar content built on pre-existing
knowledge
(tic-tac-toe board)
Transmissionist Constructivist
What do students bring
to your class?
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Work with the other person at your table.
Partner 1 (whose first name comes earlier in alphabet):
Think of a concept in a freshman-level course in your
discipline. What knowledge, experience, or skill do your
students already have that you can use to teach that
concept?
Partner 2:
Help your partner align pre-existing knowledge,
experience, or skill and the concept.
“In a moment but
not yet…”
Classroom Environments 1
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Schools and classrooms must be learner centered.
(How People Learn, p. 23)
Students need to encounter safe yet challenging conditions in
which they can try, fail, receive feedback, and try again without
facing summative evaluation.
(What the best college teachers do, p.108)
Learning requires interaction [3]
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Learning requires interaction [3]
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% of class time
NOT lecturing
Learning gain:
pre-test 0
100%
post-test
0.50
Learning requires interaction [3]
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52 classes of sizes 25 to 100+ students, at 2-
and 4-yr colleges and research universities
across US. Every student wrote an astronomy
test (twice). Points shows a class’ learning gain.
Learning requires interaction [3]
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1 2
3 4
Key Finding 2
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To develop competence in an area, students must:
a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,
b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and
c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application.
(How People Learn, p 16.)
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Why Your Students Don’t Understand You
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Expert brains differ from novice brains because
novices lack rich, networked connections, cannot make
inferences, cannot reliably retrieve information
notices have preconceptions that distract, confuse,
hinder
novices lack automization (“muscle memory”) resulting
in cognitive overload
Implications for Teaching 2
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Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth, providing many examples in which the same concept is at work and providing a firm foundation of factual knowledge.
Classroom Environments 2
To provide a knowledge-centered environment, attention must be given to what is taught (information, subject matter), why it is taught (understanding), and what competence or mastery looks like.
(How People Learn, p 20.)
(How People Learn, p 24.)
Expert-like thinking
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Think about the class you observed earlier this week.
How often did the instructor model expert-like thinking
or behavior? That is, not just sharing content but revealing
and demonstrating how experts think about, process,
articulate, etc. the concepts.
A) all the time
B) occasionally
C) hardly ever
D) never
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knowledge
framework
retrieval
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knowledge
framework
retrieval
29
knowledge
framework
retrieval
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Key Finding 3
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A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.
(How People Learn, p 18.)
Aside: metacognition
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Metacognition refers to one’s knowledge concerning one’s own
cognitive processes or anything related to them. For example, I am
engaging in metacognition if I notice that I am having more trouble
learning A than B.
([4], [5])
cognition meta
Key Finding 3
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A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.
(How People Learn, p 18.)
Implications for Teaching 3
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The teaching of metacognitive skills should be integrated into the curriculum in a variety of subject areas.
Classroom Environments 3 Formative assessments — ongoing assessments designed to make students’ thinking visible to both teachers and students — are essential.
(How People Learn, p 21.)
(How People Learn, p 24.)
Supporting metacognition
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Why do you think instructors ask, “Any questions?”
A) to signal they’re at the end of a section or concept
B) so the instructor can check if s/he can continue
C) so the instructor can check if the students understand
D) so the students can check if they’re ready to continue
E) not sure but it’s something instructors should do
“What questions do you have for me?”
…and give them enough time
to ask a useful question
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What is going to happen in this class
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Weekly meetings in BRF 1102:
1hr 20 min mixture of theory and practice
interact in small groups
Wed 3:00 – 4:20 pm
If you need to attend a conference, job interview or something of that nature, attend another weekly session and let us know.
To prepare:
read assigned research paper, chapter, article, etc.
do an activity (post on the class blog, leave comments on others’ posts, observe a class, etc.)
Traditional classroom
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first exposure to material is in class, content is
transmitted from instructor to student
learning occurs later when student struggles alone to
complete homework, essay, project
learn easy stuff
together
learn hard
stuff alone
transfer assimilate
Flipped classroom
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student learns easy content at home: definitions, basic
skills, simple examples. Frees up class time for...
students are prepared to tackle challenging concepts in
class, with immediate feedback from peers, instructor
learn hard
stuff together
learn easy stuff
alone
transfer assimilate
Topic-level
LO
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level LO
Course-level LO
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Course-level LO
Course-level LO Course-level
learning outcome (LO)
Topic-level
LO Topic-level
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Topic-level
LO
Topic-level
LO Topic-level
LO
Topic-
level LO
Topic-
level LO
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level LO
Topic-
level LO Topic-
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LO
Course-level learning outcomes
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By the end of The College Classroom, you’ll be able to
explain why certain instructional activities are successful and why
others are not
identify and support student-centered learning environments
recognize and build upon the diversity of your students
be reflective and scholarly about your teaching
know how to succeed as a professional educator in higher
education
participate in the teaching and learning community, in-person and
online
Topic-level learning outcomes
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Many topic-level learning outcomes in
1. modern theory of Constructivist learning
by the end of the course, you’ll be able to have an elevator
conversation describing the importance of metacognition in
learning.
and more…
Topic-level learning outcomes
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Many topic-level learning outcomes in
2. best practices for the college classroom
by the end of the course, you’ll be able to write a peer
instruction (clicker) question and explain to a colleague the
rationale behind the question and choices and describe how
it can be incorporated into the lesson.
and more…
Throughout the classes, we’ll be
trying to model best practices so
try to watch how we teach as
well as what we teach.
Topic-level learning outcomes
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Many topic-level learning outcomes in
3. how to be a successful, professional educator
by the end of the course, you’ll be able to collaborate with
others using Google docs.
and more…
teachingmethodsinpublichealth.ucsd.edu
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All course information,
presentations, links to
readings, discussions, etc.
will be on the class blog.
We’ll also borrow material (for now) from
thecollegeclassroom.ucsd.edu
Course blog is public so
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I can only provide links to copyrighted articles, not the
articles (PDF) themselves
you may need to be on-campus so you can use UCSD
credentials to access subscriptions
you may be able to connect from home with the UCSD web
proxy server (search Blink for “web proxy”)
Week 2:
Supporting expert-like thinking
Watch for communication with a description of tasks to complete
before next class.
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References
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1. National Research Council (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience,
and School: Expanded Edition. J.D. Bransford, A.L Brown & R.R. Cocking
(Eds.),Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
2. Bain, K. (2004). What the best college teachers do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
3. Prather, E.E, Rudolph, A.L., Brissenden, G., & Schlingman, W.M. (2009). A
national study assessing the teaching and learning of introductory astronomy. Part I.
The effect of interactive instruction. Am. J. Phys. 77, 4, 320-330.
4. Flavell, J. H. (1976). Metacognitive aspects of problem solving. In L. B.
Resnick (Ed.), The nature of intelligence (pp.231-236). Hillsdale, NJ:
Erlbaum.
5. Brame, C. (2013). Thinking about metacognition. [blog] January, 2013,
Available at: http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/2013/01/thinking-about-
metacognition/ [Accessed: 14 Jan 2013].